This list serves as a shorthand of our preoccupations for the year 2013. It’s a cross-section of words across all public arenas, flavored with the zeitgeist, powered by emotions and spread through innate usefulness. Pop culture, science, finance, the arts, politics, Internet culture, and more. Beautiful or ugly, they’re words that are cultural indicators more than they are pageant winners. (An abbreviated version of this list will appear in the New York Times December 21-22.)

ag-gag law n. Legislation that restricts the use of undercover video in places where food animals are raised or slaughtered. Animal rights advocates say these laws can make it difficult to document animal abuse. From agriculture + gag law.

air gap n. The space surrounding a computing device that is disconnected from all networks, which can protect it from digital attacks. A security researcher claims to have discovered malware that defeats the air gap by transmitting data encoded in high frequency sounds out of computer speakers and into the microphones of other nearby computers.

bae n. Spelling representation of a dialect pronunciation of babe or baby. The catchphrase “bae caught me slippin’” (meaning, “My baby caught me sleeping”) came into vogue as a caption to photographs obviously taken by a person pretending to be asleep, a kind of incompetent narcissistic guile which may capture the spirit of our age.

Batkid n. Miles Scott, a five-year-old boy with leukemia who through the Make-a-Wish Foundation was able to play-act as his favorite hero, Batman, for a day. Thousands of people in San Francisco, including the mayor and sports celebrities, took part in a citywide role-play as Batkid saved the city from the Penguin and the Riddler.

Boston Strong n. A catchphrase and slogan used to show solidarity after a bombing during the Boston Marathon on April 15th.

catfish v. To impersonate someone or misrepresent oneself online, especially to pretend to have a relationship as part of a hoax or a scam. From the 2010 documentary Catfish, in which a married woman in her 40s pretends to be younger and single while online.

cis adj. Matching or identifying with the gender or identity that one was born to. Short for cisgender, an antonym of transgender. Pronounced as /siss/.

cronut n. A wonderful pastry that is part croissant, part doughnut, and part hype.

deep state or Deep State n. A hard-to-perceive level of government or super-control that exists regardless of elections, and which may thwart popular movements or radical change. Some have said that Egypt is being manipulated by its deep state.

doge n. An intentional misspelling of dog. It’s part of a popular Internet meme featuring pictures of Shiba Inu dogs surrounded by not-quite-grammatical Comic Sans captions.

drone n. An unmanned flying machine, either autonomous or remotely piloted, used for things like surveillance, military sorties, and delivery. As a verb, to send a drone to a location, especially to bomb it. “We droned most of the key militant leaders.”

fatberg n. A 15-ton ball of fat, grease, and solid sewage found in London sewers. In the UK Guardian, a spokesperson called a fatberg “a heaving, sick-smelling, rotting mass of filth and feces.”

feels n.pl. Feelings. Originated online, thrived as a meme in 2012, and now in 2013 shows signs of moving into more widespread English slang. It’s typically used in response to a moving story: “That got me right in the feels, bro.”

glasshole n. A person who wears Google Glass, a head-mounted computer, and tends to ignore what is happening around them.

Harlem Shake n. A song by the musician Baauer which has been used in many parody videos. In each, a helmeted or masked person dances alone while being ignored by others. Then, after a musical drop, the scene changes and is filled with lots of outlandish dancing.

ITAP An acronym for “I took a picture.”

krokodil n. A Russian morphine-derived drug, desomorphine, that is said to cause horrible disfigurement.

lean in v. A business philosophy intended to lead women to success in the workplace. From the title of a 2013 book by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.

molly n. A supposedly pure form of the illegal drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy. The term is at least ten years old.

no filter A label for photograph that have not been adjusted by software. Often used as a hashtag: #nofilter.

Obamacare. n. The Affordable Care Act signed into law in 2010. Since 2007, the word has been both wielded like a bludgeon and held up like a trophy, and has gone from a sneered pejorative to a matter-of-fact shorthand used by all but the stiffest of bureaucrats.

resting bitch face, bitchy resting face, bitch face n. A face that, when at rest, looks angry, irritated, or aggressive. Dating back at least ten years as a described concept but popularized in 2013 by a video made by the group Broken People.

shark week n. Days when menstruation occurs. After the notion of “blood in the water” and Shark Week, a week-long showing of programs about sharks on the Discovery Channel.

Sharknado n. A B-movie featuring sharks being hurled about by a tornado.

sorry, not sorry adj. phr. A way of apologizing without apologizing, usually used as an interjection or an aside.

twerk v. A mode of dance that involves vigorous booty-shaking and booty-thrusting, usually with the feet planted. Although the term is about 20 years old, it received new attention when singer Miley Cyrus performed a twerk-like routine on-stage at MTV’s Video Music Awards. The word’s origin is uncertain, but may come from chanted repetitions of “work it, work it.”

vape v. To smoke electronic cigarettes, which use moisture to deliver nicotine without tobacco. Vape lounges are places where e-cigarette supplies can be bought and used.

vax n. A vaccine. Also anti-vaxxer, a person who believes that vaccinations are harmful.

young invincibles n. People between ages 18 and 34 years old who are typically in good health and may not see the need to sign up for health insurance. This group is needed to be a part of the healthcare system, however, in order to spread the cost of providing affordable insurance.

Grant Barrett is a lexicographer specializing in slang and new words and co-host of the public radio program A Way with Words, http://waywordradio.org.

Resting bitch face? I occurs to me most faces I’ve ever seen are that. The Mona Lisa is among the few.

Am I alone? The answer is scary either way.

2013/12/212:00am

wordabilityhugh

New Member

Forum Posts: 1

Member Since: 2013/12/21

Offline

3

0

Another interesting list and as more people give their views on the words of the year, it seems that selfie, twerk and Bitcoin are emerging as the words that everybody is fixing on as they are being mentioned by many commentators and language bodies. Other than that, there is a lot of variety. I think I am still the only language blogger to have nominated phubbing in a list:

There is degree. I’ve seen a man pacing up and down the whole length of a restaurant, brandishing the free arm. Some people seem making a conscious effort to hide the phone under the table, but it still looks bad.

2013/12/225:28am

techne

New Member

Forum Posts: 1

Member Since: 2012/08/16

Offline

5

0

‘cis’ as the antonym of ‘trans’ has, of course, been used for two different molecular conformations/positions in both chemistry and genetics for many decades. In genetics the two words are not really considered ‘short’ for anything since their definitions are sentences, not words.

2013/12/308:20am

DavidS

Guest

6

0

denier n. – A person defined by their opposition to a scientific view as in climate denier or vaccine denier.

Repug n. – a term used by liberals to refer to Republican politicians whose views they find repugnant as in “The Rebugs just voted to end …”

2013/12/308:20am

dkropp

Member

Forum Posts: 3

Member Since: 2013/10/09

Offline

7

0

Thanks, Grant for your voracity.

2013/12/318:10am

BPvL

New Member

Forum Posts: 1

Member Since: 2013/12/31

Offline

8

0

Thanks Grant.

This list is very up-to-date as I read the ‘fatberg’ in the Guardian very recently. By the way, it is peculiar that for this phenomenon a Dutch/German derived word is used (vet berg/Fett Berg = fat mountain)

2013/12/319:13pm

deaconB

Member

Forum Posts: 380

Member Since: 2013/10/18

Offline

9

0

I don’t think the Bitcoin belongs on any list of neologisms. It’s a trademark, not the term for a generic product or service.

MSNBC’s calling “icon” the most hated neologism. Are Catholics supposed to redecorate their churches? Am I supposed to click on the browser thing-a-ma-bob instead of the browser icon? The guy who wrote the story, though, is an ignorant ass in other ways, though, saying that nobody knows the heroes of Iwo Jima. ira Hayes, anyone?

Eat the Grindstone 03/20/2015: The books we love as children may influence our careers more than we realize. As a child, Martha was fascinated with stories of cracking codes,... [more]

Pickle Seeder 03/13/2015: Would you rather live in a world with no adjectives ... or no verbs — and why? Also, who in the world is that director... [more]

Green-Eyed Monster 03/06/2015: We often hear that English is going to hell in a handbasket. Actually, though, linguistic handwringing about sinking standards and sloppy speech has been going... [more]

Blind Tiger 02/27/2015: When you pick up a book of poems, how many do you read in one sitting? Some people devour several in a row, while others... [more]

Idiom's Delight 02/20/2015: A recent study found that some names crop up more frequently than others in certain professions. The name William is especially common among attorneys--and graphic... [more]